A few from the Falls

From this site, the legend of Noccalula:

"The unusual name of the waterfall is part of a popular Alabama legend that has been repeated for generations. As the story goes, Noccalula was the daughter of a Cherokee chief who lived with his people near the spectacular falls.

The young woman had fallen in love with a warrior from her own tribe. He was a brave man, but did not possess the worldly goods of many of his rivals. Noccalula's father, contrary to his daughter's wishes, viewed the man as a poor match for his well-placed daughter and instead arranged for her to marry the wealthy chief of a powerful rival tribe. He also ordered her true love expelled from the village. The young woman was heartbroken.

On the day of her wedding people gathered in the village for a great feast. Noccalula was dressed in her wedding finery but in a quiet moment she slipped away and walked to the edge of the swiftly running away. Before anyone could stop her, she leaped from the top and ended her life in the swirling water and mist below.

His daughter's suicide awakened her father to the harshness of his actions and in his remorse he decreed that the waterfall would always be known for his daughter. It is called Noccalula Falls to this day and legend holds that the ghost of the young Cherokee woman can still be seen at times, walking among the mists and looking for her long lost true love."

Statue of Princess Noccalula

The Falls

The Family :)

The Gals

Some friends with the friendly train engineer

The brothers

Waiting to ride the train

Colors of the sunset on the drive home

We had a great time at the APPNA meeting today. Although all the activities started about an hour and a half late (typical of most Pakistani gatherings) the kids had plenty of time to explore the park, and ride the train again, and again, and again. The food was delicious and we had time to catch up with some friends, as well as get some continuing medical education credits. Definitely worth the hour long drive!

On the agenda

It's nice to have a weekend when neither Zakir nor I are on call, but we still have a full couple of days. Today Bilal and I drove down to the AAA office to get some maps and info for our upcoming trip to St. Louis. We'll be visiting family over the Thanksgiving break. I also reserved a hotel room half way so that we can break the trip on the way there. 7+ hours would be quite a bit with Bilal. Four or five hours to Mobile isn't usually too bad, but we don't want to push our luck. It is great that we had plenty of points accumulated to get a free night at the Hampton Inn.

The rest of the day was just low key; we hung outside until it was too dark to play in the yard. Sadly, that comes too early these days. We are still having warm days, but the temperature drops fairly rapidly as the sun starts to set. And I still can't figure out what to do with these long, dark evenings.


Tomorrow the APPNA Alabama chapter meets at Noccalula Falls for its fall meeting. APPNA is an organization of doctors of Pakistani descent in the US. The Alabama chapter is still fairly young, but growing. The last time we went to the Falls it hadn't rained in months, and the waterfall was less than impressive, but I have heard that it is quite a site to see after the rains. So we are looking forward to that.

Sunday, of course, is Sunday School for the kids, which takes up the better part of the day, and by the time they get home and have a late lunch they are already getting into school mode for the following week. and I am working a thirteen hour, THIRTEEN HOUR urgent care shift. Why am I such a sucker for punishment???!!! So I won't be home till 1am Monday morning, and then it will be back to work at 8am as usual. I am taking Bilal to work Monday since Vicki is out of town. Maybe we can both come home after clinic and have a nice long nap. I can wish, right?

Speaking of naps, Bilal's are getting shorter and shorter. He still gets cranky if he doesn't nap at all. On top of that he still hasn't adjusted to the daylight savings time change. So no matter how late he goes to bed, he's still up at the crack of dawn. The last couple of nights I gave up on trying to stretch his bed time until 8pm and have been putting him down earlier. At least he won't be as sleep deprived over time.

Safa, Hamza and I just finished another game of Phase 10. Seriously, that is one of the most fun card games I have ever played. We always end up rolling on the floor with laughter, and with tears streaming down our faces. All the while singing Beatles songs at the top of our lungs, (out of tune of course!) It's a pity that Bilal isn't old enough to join in the fun, we have to wait until he goes to bed before we can take out the cards. Maybe in a couple of years he'll be playing with us too.

Rainy day

After ten or so gorgeous fall days it has been a dull and rainy day today. The effects of Tropical storm Ida are being felt all over Alabama. I suppose we shouldn't complain, since so far we have experienced nothing but sunny skies, cool crisp mornings and lovely warm afternoons since the start of November. But I sure am ready for all this rain to pass through.



It's the middle of November and our confederate rose is still blooming. Usually by this time we've had her first frost, and that's all it takes to stop it in its tracks. The temperature has been close to freezing a couple of mornings, but hasn't quite hit 32 degrees yet.

Today even the cats have been grumpy, particularly Sammy, who loves to spend time outdoors in the sun. Tiny has stayed asleep most of the day on her perch, on Zakir's office chair, so she'll probably be frisky and restless overnight. I don't think she has woken up at all today, except to have a snack here and there. Ah, the life of a cat!

And I wanted to share one photo of Bilal with his Baba. See that tongue sticking out from the side of his mouth? That's the exact thing Zakir does when he's concentrating on something, which is incidentally the same thing Dada Abbu (Zakir's dad) does when he is deep in thought. Evidently some mannerisms run in the family!

Shelby County Airport

I dropped Safa off at her school at 5:30am yesterday; she was headed with the rest of the math team to Cedar ridge for a math tournament. After making round and coming back home we didn't have any fixed plans for the rest of the day. Zakir and I were thinking of heading to Springville for Homestead Hollow, but Hamza really, really, really wanted to check out the old war planes being displayed at Shelby County Airport. So off to the airport we went. How can you disappoint such an enthusiastic young man??!! It was another beautiful fall day, perfect for being outdoors. And the planes were actually quite impressive!

Bilal's visit to the pumpkin patch

Vicki took Bilal to the pumpkin patch a few days before Halloween. Looks like they had a lot of fun; they had so many pictures to share!








I had been trying to figure out how to squeeze a trip to the pumpkin patch into our crazy weekend schedule, and that, of course, didn't materialize. So I'm so glad that Bilal got to go! And, as you can see, he got to wear his favorite pumpkin T-shirt, in a more seasonal setting!

Outdoors in November

Outside our house:

And a few more from the playground,

This mild weather rocks!

My Little Monkey

Seventy degrees and sunny in November, perfect park weather! Bilal and I spent an hour and a half between the library and the playground today. There were so many people having a picnic with their kids, I kept kicking myself for not bringing lunch for us too! But how did I know that the day would be this gorgeous? For Bilal today it was all about climbing.

And pretending to be a firefighter, trying to slide down every pole in site.

Then climbing again,

up, and

up, and up, andup to the top. And sliding down.

As if that weren't challenging enough, he had to climb up, yet again!

Made it!

Then, back down again

Whee!